Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Coming Ashore: across the West in 10 days

Along Highway 128 in Utah

We just returned from our 'Come Ashore Tour,' 10 days of driving up and over The Sierra Nevada and The Rocky Mountains. As with most every trip I've taken, it took me about 3 or 4 days to really sink into the fact that I could let go of my routine and get into the groove of where next...but once I did, it was a full trip. A trip that included all of it: beautiful views and tired-from-being-on-the-road-too-long eyes, letting go of usual routines and developing new habits (including taking more pictures on Instagram than writing), soaking in hot springs, playing music at a variety of venues including living rooms and music stores, visiting family, discovering the wonders of Airbnb, revisiting former home towns, eating pie at almost every opportunity, cowriting in parks and reading the The New Yorker aloud across Nevada. We saw a good cross section of Western wildlife, including many birds (Ibis, Sandhill Cranes), native mammals (moose (!), bobcat, and at least one 'mystery ungulate), and a few lizards amid a lot of road construction. Amazingly, while there were definitely a good number of U-turns made, we didn't get lost. By the trip's end of course, the trip was the routine...  now it's going to take me a few days to realize I'm home. 

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